In a recent article, Anne Robinson, President-Elect of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Science (INFORMS), shared the institute’s definition of analytics as “the scientific process of transforming data into insight for making better decisions.” During an analytics event in San Francisco earlier this year, I trolled the streets to get a few ideas of how the general public would define analytics.

I stress that there are only a “few” perspectives here – I didn’t receive the most welcoming reception walking around San Francisco with a camera and a microphone. I felt like I was handing out a survey in the mall and everyone was avoiding me. Nonetheless, I wanted to share.

How do you define analytics?